THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 45 



Darwin did not drive me into the position of a mere advocate ; 

 and that, while doing justice to the greatness of the argument, 

 I did not fail to indicate its weak points. I have never seen 

 any reason for departing from the position which I took up in 

 these two essays ; and the assertion which I sometimes meet 

 with nowadays, that I have ' recanted ' or changed my opinions 

 about Mr. Darwin's views, is quite unintelligible to me." 



A lecture " On the Persistent Types of Animal Life" 

 (Proc. Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-62, pp. 151-3. Sci. Mem., 

 ii, IV, p. 90), delivered at the Royal Institution on June 

 3, of this year, and in part the outcome of his work on 

 Nautilus (one such type), anticipates one of the objec- 

 tions afterwards brought against Darwinism, i.e., that it 

 is not justified by the evidence of geology. The lecture 

 points out that such persistence is only explicable on 

 evolutionary grounds, and also lays stress on the imper- 

 fection of the geological record. 



When, later in the year, the Origin made its appear- 

 ance, Huxley, by a singular piece of good fortune, was 

 entrusted with the review for the Times. 



This was written in Huxley's best style, and the in- 

 spiration of the subject enabled him to complete it with 

 great rapidity, in strong contrast to his usual practice. 

 In it he says : — 



" That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a 

 reason for many apparent anomalies in the distribution of living 

 beings in space and time, and that it is not contradicted by the 

 main phenomena of life and organization appear to us to be 

 unquestionable." 



But readers of the book are enjoined, in characteristic 

 fashion, to maintain that spirit of — 



"doubt, which so loves truth, that it neither dares rest in doubt- 

 ing, nor extinguish itself by unjustified belief." 



